12 December 2012
He stepped silently out of the shadows like a specter, his face ashen in the cold moonlight, the wind lifting the tails of his suit jacket and playing with strands of his thick, chestnut hair.
"So, it's come to this," he said. It had come to this, and I was putting my own life in crucial danger along with my family's and maybe the whole world. The dark figure; no name, and I'd never seen his face; had arrived at my house in the night a week after I had married Cole. I woke up to his tall, thin body, framed by the moonlight, looming over me like a tower.
He got right to the point. "There is a document in your family's safe. Perhaps you're wondering the purpose of my...surprising visit? Spells galore. Black magic. To make me powerful. Only you possess the key. Give me the document and you will be rewarded. To disagree is to die," he had growled. I was too terrified to scream. The wind howled and the gaping french window banged against the wall making a racket like a firework.
"Sarah?" I heard my husbands concerned, faint call coming from the bathroom. The lean figure snapped his head over to the bedroom door, illuminating the shadowy character's sharp features. Long chin, with deep, piercing eyes as black as night glinting in the light. "Seven years..." he said menacingly and leaped out the window. I was sure that he would fall to his death, instead he just disappeared into the charcoal night. Never would I let harm come to my children, just like every parent. The whole world was in danger if I chose my family. The second choice would mean death for my three children, faithful husband, parents, and almost certainly my husbands parents.
Over the next five years I began searching for the key, going back to my family's safe. One Autumn day, a banker approached, wondering because she had seen me visit the bank several times each month over the past few years.
"Ma'am, do you need help with something?" she inquired.
"Yes, my name is Sarah VanNatta. Would you please check the 'VanNatta' safe please?" The clerk agreed. Later she came back saying that she could not open the safe.
"Thank you, have a nice day," I abruptly said and walked briskly out the door. She looked strangely at me, as if she knew something I didn't.
The day after, I woke up. My thoughts switched immediately to the safe. Two more years. My husband was unaware of my situation along with my precious children. The thoughts made me tired and lazy. 'If only I could stay in bed all day...' I wished. I waved my hand playfully toward the locked attic door in the ceiling pretending to be magical. The trapdoor rattled. I jumped out of bed, spooked. I reached out my hand and closed my eyes. The wooden door appeared in the darkness. My fist closed, and shimmering swirls appeared around the lock. It levitated, flapped down and the door banged open. "Honey?" Cole shouted down from the kitchen. "Just getting a box from the attic!" I lied. It was only for his own safety. Back to the most important subject. I had found the key.
Here and now I might be dead in a few minutes. The mysterious man had been watching me and knew that I could open the safe, to which no actual key belonged to. "So it's come to this." It had. "Spare my family, please! Do anything to me, but have mercy on them!" I pleaded. The man pondered taking a few minutes to take in my bargain. "Since you have found the document...and sparing your family will be such a risk for them connecting the dots...You will come with me."
"No! I can't-" The last thing I saw before darkness was the document in his hand. He slipped his hand behind my back where the paper was hidden and folded it neatly into his coat pocket. His ashen face stared down at me. "Goodbye, my thief." He'd used me all along. The world is in danger now. Hide. Run. Survive.
The Document • Opuss № I